Smith, Mills, Gray, Hill Family

Looking for additional information on the Smith, Mills, Gray, Hill Familes from Haskell County previous Indian Territory around Enterprise and Quinton Oklahoma, I have most of the family information and some old photos of these individuals. If anyone has addtional information or resources of Choctaw Heritage I would greatly appreciate it.

this is very general. the surnames you have mentioned are very common.

genealogists use names, dates, locations, children and spouse to match records.

you should start with what you know, gather documents, then you can go backward in time. so get your birth certificate, your parents’ birth certificates and marriage license and then you have more information to try to find your grandparents.

obituaries are helpful. look for those through your local public library interlibrary loan program. death certificates can often help. birth certificates and marriage license are primary documents of those events. if you get stuck on anyone who passed away after 1/1/1937, their social security application can help. people often got a delayed birth certificate to show proof of age, so you have to ask for both the delayed birth certificate and the birth certificate.

when you get back to the 1930 period, the census can be helpful to show family members, the location of your family. there is no 1890 census, as it burned and only a few pages remain.

if your family was enrolled or just applied, the dawes application, census card and testimony can help. the dawes roll was taken 1896-1906.

genealogists use names, dates, locations, children and spouses to match records. if you have a common surname, you need to give more information rather than less. if you post about women, it is helpful to include the maiden name and the married name and designate which one is the maiden name.

start with what you know, gather documentation, then you can go backward in time. so get your birth certificate, your parents’ birth certificates and marriage license and then you can start on your grandparents. if someone passed away after 1/1/1937, they probably have a social security application on file. if you ask a government for a birth certificate, and they were born before 1929, they might have sumitted a delayed birth certificate. death certificates, cemetery information and obituaries are helpful. you can usually get a copy of an obituary, newspaper mentions such as birth of a child or marriage, through the interlibrary loan program – see your local public library for this. i usually start with the death and work toward the person’s birth. military records and pension records can be helpful. census records can tell you where they were at particular times. the census records up to 1930 are available, although the 1890 census was largely destroyed. the 1940 census will be public information in 2012.

first of all, heritage and tribal enrollment are two different things. many times natives didn’t apply for enrollment because 1) they didn’t qualify, 2) they were philosophically opposed to enrollment, 3) they didn’t have documentation, or 4) they were mississippi choctaw and their ancestor had accepted land or benefits in lieu of tribal enrollment.

the dawes roll was taken 1896-1906, so you should trace your ancestors down to that time period. mostly, they had to be living in oklahoma by that time and agree to live there permanently.

2 ways to search:
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/finalroll.php
this will let you enter partial names to get card#. click on the card# in the card column and you can see other names in that family.
other resources on the left and at the bottom of this webpage. native census records and databases are especially useful.

http://www.okhistory.org/research/dawes/index.php
this will give you card# (family group) and enrollment #. they have some native marriage records too. other oklahoma records listed at left.
if the name is common, you may find too many possible records.
http://okhistory.cuadra.com/star/public.html

the tribe has an excellent information to help you. it is found under genealogy advocacy.
http://choctawnation.com/services/departments/community-services/

NARA http://www.archives.gov/ federal records repository. the fort worth, TX office has archives for oklahoma and texas tribes. atlanta/morrow office has archives for the southwest tribes. many offices have microfilmed records for several tribes. note that this web address has changed recently from nara.gov.

some links for the choctaw.
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/choctaw/index.htm
i looked at the land records and those need a lot of work. i have no information about whether or when they will improve some of these categories.

types of records available for native americans:
pages 366-369 in particular although the entire native american chapter is helpful.
The Genealogist’s Companion and Sourcebook:
Guide to the Resources You Need for Unpuzzling Your Past
Emily Anne Croom
you can ask for these particular pages from your local public library. if they don’t have the book, you can get the pages through the interlibrary loan program.
native american records are discussed in pages 352-386.

Tracing ancestors among the Five Civilized Tribes: Southeastern Indians …
By Rachal Mills Lennon
this book could be accessed through the interlibary loan program also.

always find the state archives. some records are online, some records are not. but many times you can find a record not found in other places. you want to see also about newspaper mentions for obituaries, births, marriages in particular.

check courts for probate, civil and criminal cases, marriage records.

if your ancestors lived on a reservation, they might not appear on a federal census because they were not taxed.
http://www.okgenweb.org/~okgarvin/kinard/1860index.htm
1860 census, indian territory.

this book is a good read about the dawes roll and how they implemented it.
The Dawes Commission and the allotment of the Five Civilized Tribes, 1893-1914
By Kent Carter

good advice about native research:
http://jenniferhsrn2.homestead.com/research2.html

if your relatives came from a different geographic location or belonged to a different tribe, try searching google for the state and tribes. you might find a contact for a state-recognized tribe or a federal recognized tribe.

i have collected many resources over the years. if you want to write to me, shamlet76@gmail.com and request the choctaw resource list, i will be glad to send it to you.

i am just a volunteer that wants to empower people to learn how to do genealogy.

My issue is that my wife grandmother Cornelia (Nelli) Smith was born in 1906 and does not show up on the dawes rolls. We have her birth cert. and are waiting for Husbands Harold D. Sampsons from California to show family line. Her parents Albert Henderson Smith and wife Mary Elizabeth Massey had 11 chlldren

attached:

it is ok if someone was born in 1906 but not on the dawes roll. the dawes roll is a list of applicants who applied for tribal enrollment 1896-1906. the rolls were closed in 1906.
you have to be directly related to an original tribal member, and if you are related to cornelia, then you would be directly related to her parents.

you can look at accessgenealogy and see if they have the documents on the family that you need. the cost of each dawes packet is greater from oklahoma historical society or NARA/fort worth office than a month’s membership for footnote.com. and footnote.com is online.

it sounds as if you are on the right track.
call the tribe and ask them what documents you have to have. if a cousin, for instance, submitted documents already, you may not have to submit all documents.
gl.

About the 1896 Applications for Enrollment
For years the 1896 enrollment among the members of the Five Civilized Tribes has created serious issues for genealogists. The enrollment was at the insistence of the Dawes Commission in its effort to determine citizenship within each tribe. The series of problems with this group of records stems from certain individuals or families being enrolled by the federal courts which did not have the jurisdiction to determine who was a citizen and who was not. Moreover, many non-citizens were enumerated who were in fact intruders residing with a particular tribe. The tribal officials fought the enrollment and enumeration and contested the right of the federal courts in Indian Territory conferring tribal citizenship. After much debate, the Secretary of the Interior wisely sided with the tribes, thus the census and enrollment of 1896 was disregarded and would not be used as a basis for enrollment within the tribes. With this latest defensive move by the tribes, the commissioners representing the Dawes Commission sought congressional assistance to force the Five Civilized Tribes to negotiate agreements to prepare a final roll and eventual allotment of lands.
In June 1898, the Curtis Act was passed by Congress which forced the tribes to treat with the Dawes Commission. The 1896 enrollments were scrapped due to inaccurate data. Unfortunately, those individuals who had citizenship conferred by the federal courts were in most cases not notified that their citizenship had been overturned. This led to a variety of legal issues that ultimately prevented large segments of non-citizens from being enrolled by the commission as only the tribes had the authority to determine who was a citizen.
Order Copies
The Oklahoma Historical Society collections include the 1896 census cards and enrollment packets, if available. Packets vary in length; some include information about the individual while others may include only a single page. Please note there are very few packets available for the Creek tribe.
The Research Center now offers 1896 Application for Enrollment packets for a flat fee of $30. Be certain to include the information listed in the index, including the individual’s full name, tribe and case number. To order by mail use the printable order form or call (405) 522-5225 to order by phone. Please have your credit card ready.

http://www.okhistory.org/research/applications1896

the dawes process began in 1896 but was restarted due to the problems with the process.

the card#780 might be useful to you in completing information on your heritage, but the family would have had to complete the enrollment process with the tribe before 1906.